Fade-out: Take 2 of the Kanyon and Daylen Series, page 14
As Daylen’s body reacted to Kanyon’s touch, she moaned slightly. “Definitely wasn’t the bike.”
Kanyon lifted a curious eyebrow. “What wasn’t the bike?”
Daylen stepped back quickly, realizing she had actually spoken the words out loud. “Nothing. Bike was fun. We better check on Blue, her mom is waiting for me to call.”
“Right.” Kanyon nodded, holding back the grin. “Let’s go.”
Kanyon tried the door to Blue’s building. It was still broken. As they approached Blue’s apartment Kanyon caught Daylen’s arm, stopping her.
Daylen looked back. “What?”
Kanyon nodded at the door. “The frame is splintered.”
Daylen started to rush forward but Kanyon held onto her arm, pulling her back. “What if the person or persons that did this are still in there?”
“What if Blue is in there?” Daylen protested.
“We can’t rush in there blindly. Try out your little Spidey sense and see if you get any bad juju fruit vibes.”
Daylen glanced back at Kanyon. “Seriously?”
“I was changing it up.” Kanyon shrugged. “Go ahead.” She wiggled her fingers at Daylen’s forehead.
Daylen slapped Kanyon’s hand down and would have argued if she hadn’t been worried about Blue and what was going on behind her apartment door. Daylen lowered her shields and searched for any signs of malevolence. “Nothing, just general anger at the world.”
Daylen rushed forward. “Blue!”
Kanyon stepped behind Daylen, took in the room, monster heads, bloody arms, and she was pretty sure the grey gelatin like masses leaking into the carpet were broken jars of brains.
“Blue!” Daylen yelled again, fighting against Kanyon who was trying to slow her down.
Blue walked out of a back room wearing knee high black rubber boots, old school aviator goggles pushed back on her forehead, a black poodle skirt, which instead of the classic poodle on a leash design the poodle was sporting a hot pink Mohawk and spiked leather collar. Underneath the skirt she wore cargo pants as leggings and to top off the outfit, a very pink and very small ‘F*** Chihuahuas’ t-shirt.
“Blue!” Daylen raced forward and took the girl into her arms, squeezed, then pushed her back to arm’s reach. “Are you okay?” she asked as she did a head to toe visual scan for injuries.
“I’m fine, geez, back up ah…” Blue’s smart mouth started, but faded quickly as she took in another sight of her creations destroyed on her floor.
“Hovercraft? Smother Spice? Sir Hugs-Too-Much? Captain Space Invader?” Kanyon offered.
“Thanks.” Blue shot Kanyon a weak grin then turned back to Daylen. “What she said. Let me guess, my mom sent you?”
“Why didn’t you tell her what happened?” Daylen asked as she turned to take in the room in more detail.
“Oh sure, so she’d come out here, pack up all my stuff, or what’s left of it, and ship me back to Hooterville?”
“You’re from Hooterville?” Kanyon asked.
Blue gave Kanyon an exaggerated eye roll. “Might as well be, same diff.” Blue turned back to Daylen, the insolence and general hatred for all things breathing now dropped. “Daylen, I can’t go back there. Please don’t tell her what happened.”
Daylen looked into Blue’s now pleading, childlike eyes. “Blue, you can’t stay here; it’s not safe and if something happened to you, your mother would kill me.”
“This place isn’t that bad.” Blue tried to sound convincing as she stood in the middle of destruction.
“The security door outside hasn’t worked in over a month, anyone can get in here,” Daylen argued.
Blue gave a pointed look at both Daylen and Kanyon. “That is slightly annoying, but still…” she softened her look. “Please Daylen, you know my mom. You know she’ll want me to come home and I can’t, there’s no way. I’d rather...” her normal quick wit failed her again as she picked up a creature’s head from the floor.
“Lick frosting off Hugh Hefner’s-” Kanyon inserted but stopped as Daylen’s head whipped around, “robe lapel,” she finished. “Geez, what did you think I was going to say?”
“Heck I’d kiss his old wrinkly butt after he ate from the dirty burrito food truck and had a box of laxatives for dessert,” Blue elaborated.
Kanyon nodded her understanding and approval to the added descriptors.
“Okay, geez.” Daylen held out her hand. “I don’t need either of your sick visuals. And just for the record, you both need some serious help. Blue, I have to…” Daylen stopped mid-sentence as she looked at the desperation so apparent on Blue’s face then down at Blue’s hands which now gripped hers. She took a long exaggerated breath then released it, letting her exasperation be clearly understood. “Fine, but on one condition; you have to find a better place to live, a safer place to live, and only then will I consider not telling your mother,” Daylen conceded.
Blue sighed, released Daylen’s hands, spun away quickly, and started to pick up the destruction again. “I can’t afford to move,” she muttered after a few minutes.
“I thought things were going well with the Syfy gig? That has to be paying decent money?” Daylen asked.
Blue picked up a dismembered arm and tossed it on the couch. “There were some creative differences,” Blue mumbled.
“The kind of differences where they tell you to do something and you tell them to… Let me guess.” She pretended to think. “Tell them where they can politely shove their request up their ass?”
“NO!” Blue spun back on Daylen, who simply crossed her arms and lifted a don’t-lie-to-me eyebrow at Blue. “I learned my lesson the last time and I didn’t tell them to shove anything up their ass.” Blue mocked Daylen and crossed her own arms defiantly.
“What did you say?” Daylen asked.
“I told them they could put their lame-ass, narrow-minded, non-creative, been there - seen it on Star Trek twenty years ago - ideas on a shit sandwich and choke on it,” Blue announced proudly.
Kanyon covered her laugh with a cough and turned back to look at the few monsters that still lined Blue’s wall.
“Blue, you will never get anywhere in this business if you keep pissing people off all the time.”
“Kanye manages,” Blue shot back.
“She’s got a point,” Kanyon said from the other side of the room.
“Not helping,” Daylen replied in Kanyon’s direction then turned back to Blue. “Blue, I’m going to have to tell your mom. You can’t stay here. Maybe she’ll send you some money to find a new place.”
“She’ll send me enough money for bus fare. Daylen please, I will shrivel up and die if I go back home.” Blue began pacing, mindlessly moving body parts around. “I mean, really. Can you see me in middle-crap America?” She stopped and waved a hand over herself. “Do I look like a manager of a Dollar General store?”
Kanyon turned to look at Blue, the five piercings and this week’s pink hair and statement outfit. She didn’t know about Daylen, but she couldn’t imagine Blue doing anything but creating the magnificent, though disturbing, creations that lined her wall and once filled her apartment. “There is another option,” Kanyon stated before she could really think through the details.
Blue lifted desperate eyes to Kanyon, followed by Daylen’s suspicious ones. No going back now, she thought. “I have a pool house that never gets used. It’s nothing fancy, but you could use it until you get back on your feet,” Kanyon offered.
“Kanyon, you don’t…” Daylen started, but Kanyon waved her off.
Blue narrowed her eyes on Kanyon. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. But there’s a catch,” Kanyon added.
“I’m not sleeping with you. I mean you’re hot and all but I don’t really swing that way, Ellen.”
Kanyon rolled her eyes. “I’ll try to handle my disappointment. Annnnnyways… Daylen hasn’t really, fully, let go of this disguise thing so you will continue those services until I can talk her out of it.” Kanyon shot Daylen a quick look, knowing they had somewhat come to a no-disguise agreement on their last trip to Blue’s.
Daylen crossed her arms across her chest, in fake irritation, or at least what she thought looked like fake irritation.
“Which apparently might take a while, but more importantly, the deal is you get the pool house for six months. In those six months you will take attitude adjustment lessons from someone of my choosing.” Kanyon held up a hand to stop Blue’s protest. “Work only, you can keep your colorful and oh, so charming personality the rest of the time. However, if at any time Daylen doesn’t think it’s working out then it’s Greyhound and Dollar General. Deal?” Kanyon walked over to Blue and held out a hand.
Blue looked down at Kanyon’s hand then back up. “I don’t have to sleep with you? Unless I get drunk and desperate and it’s my idea, then maybe.”
Kanyon gave a half laugh. “Not even then.”
Blue narrowed her eyes. “Do you have cable?”
“Yes,” Kanyon confirmed.
“A housekeeper?”
Kanyon lifted an amused brow. “I do. You don’t.”
“What kind of ice cream do you have in the fridge?”
“My refrigerator has Rocky Road. The fridge in the pool house is empty.”
“Can I have pets?”
Kanyon looked around the room. “Do you have pets?”
“No.”
“Then why are you asking?”
“I’ve always wanted a python.”
“Absolutely no snakes.” Kanyon thought for another second then added, “Or reptiles. Or bugs. Or any other creepy, insecty things.”
“How about curb side trash pick-up?”
“I’m seriously reconsidering the attitude adjustment stipulation to a 24/7 thing and adding an anti-annoying policy.”
Blue looked down at Kanyon’s still outstretched hand for a long second then looked back up, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. “Why?” she asked in a soft non-Blue like voice.
“Because someone gave me a second chance to prove myself once.” Kanyon flicked a quick glance at Daylen then back at Blue. “And I’d hate for Hollywood to miss out on all this talent.” She waved her other hand in the direction of Blue’s creatures. “So, do we have a deal or what?”
Blue looked down at Kanyon’s hand again then launched her arms around Kanyon’s waist. “Deal. You had me at cable.”
Kanyon shot Daylen a what-the-hell look over Blue’s head and Daylen returned a she’s capable of showing affection, who knew? shrug.
Kanyon cautiously closed her arms around Blue’s shoulders.
Blue immediately released her grip and jumped back. “Okay, enough with the feel-up job, Paula Poundstone.”
Daylen laughed.
“Whatever. Start gathering your stuff and I’ll get some guys over here this afternoon to help you move into the house,” Kanyon instructed, as she headed to the door.
Daylen followed her out. Kanyon was just getting ready to shut the door when Blue yelled out, “Kanyon.”
Kanyon leaned back in the room. “Yeah?”
“Thanks,” Blue whispered.
Kanyon nodded then closed the door behind her.
When they got back to Kanyon’s bike, Daylen started, “That was really kind and ah, very brave of you.”
Kanyon handed Daylen her helmet. “Yeah, good possibility I might live to regret it.”
“What made you do it?” Daylen asked.
“Like I said, someone gave me a second chance to make up for things, so I thought she deserved the same.” Kanyon slid her helmet on, flipping up the visor.
“Kanyon, you didn’t-”
“I did and still do,” Kanyon interrupted as she took Daylen’s helmet from her, gently placing it on her head and latching the chinstraps.
Daylen lifted her own visor. “Is that why you’re still here? You feel like you still need to make up for things?”
Kanyon meet Daylen’s eyes. “Only part of the reason.”
Daylen desperately wanted to hear the other reason, wanting to hear that she was there because of her, but she simply nodded her head. “Okay, so I guess we better get back to it then.”
“I was thinking we take a little ride first,” Kanyon stated, firing up the bike.
Daylen smiled and flipped down her visor as she nodded in agreement, her body already lit with heat at the thought.
Chapter 8
Daylen molded herself to Kanyon’s back as Kanyon took the winding roads out of the city and up through the valley. She felt every muscle of Kanyon’s back and stomach flex as Kanyon maneuvered the bike through the winding turns in the road. Daylen let herself relax, let her mind do the what if’s; what if she would let Kanyon in, what if she allowed herself to love her, what if she stopped fighting fate and let fate happen?
She knew, or at least believed she knew, that Kanyon was attracted to her. There was the moment on the desk, the moment on the stairs, the moment a few weeks ago in the alley, and on the blanket the day they had taken the horses out for a ride. She allowed her mind to rewind the moments and play them over and over again. Kanyon had been so close to her, giving her that teasing smile, the intimate touch here and there, and the moments where her lips had been only a breath away. She wanted those lips, wanted them on hers.
They had been there before, only once, when they had kissed. But that had been Freya and Artemisia’s lips and it had been only a brief brushing, a strategically tantalizing moment created by writers and witnessed by thousands. Even under those staged circumstances, she remembered her heart racing and the sensations that ran like electrical currents through her body just as they were doing now at the memory.
Daylen gave into the moment, letting her body enjoy the rush of sensation, the tingling that pulsed through her body, feeling as if every nerve and muscle was awake and vibrating with… power? She felt something else too, the fear and jealousy that had plagued her simply misted away. She felt better, stronger, safer than she’d ever felt, and with that she held onto Kanyon just a little tighter.
Since the moment Daylen crawled on her bike and pressed her body against hers, Kanyon felt the heat coming from Daylen. At first she thought it was just the sun warming her back, but as they moved and the sun changed positions she realized it was coming from Daylen and her body was all too eager to absorb it. It moved over her like slow burning lava filling her veins. It didn’t hurt; the exact opposite actually, it was comfort, safety and… power. Kanyon didn’t want their ride to end, the feeling to end. When they got close to the office, she seriously thought about bypassing the driveway and riding off into the proverbial sunset.
Parked and the engine shut off, Daylen reluctantly released her hold on Kanyon, not wanting their connection to end. She slid off the back of the bike, realizing quickly that the lack of cool air blowing made her now feel overheated. She scrambled to get her helmet off.
Kanyon caught Daylen’s hands, pushed them aside as she quickly released Daylen’s helmet straps. “You okay?” Kanyon asked, making quick work of her own helmet removal.
Daylen took in a deep breath. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You don’t exactly look fine.” Kanyon got off the bike and took Daylen’s helmet, hanging it on the mirror.
Daylen fanned her shirt. “I’m good. I just got a little overheated or something.”
Kanyon moved to stand in front of her, running a hand through Daylen’s hair, tucking the loose strands behind her ear. “I felt it,” Kanyon said, looking down to meet Daylen’s eyes. “I felt you. It was like a warm heat coming from you and I was absorbing it.”
Daylen broke eye contact. “I don’t know what happened. I don’t have any idea where it came from.”
“When did it start?”
Daylen glanced back up at Kanyon, but couldn’t make her mouth form the words, When I was thinking about you and me. “I don’t know exactly,” she finally said.
Kanyon could tell Daylen was keeping something from her, but didn’t think this was the time to push since Daylen was obviously shaken by whatever happened. “Okay, so let’s go talk to Ruby. Maybe she will-”
Daylen’s phone rang and she pulled it out of her bag. Theo. She answered, despite the fact they were standing outside the house.
Kanyon listened as Daylen and Theo spoke back and forth. He’d apparently found something of interest because Daylen pulled out her notebook to scribble down an address. Kanyon started toward the office but Daylen caught her arm then pointed at the address. Kanyon nodded and started back to the bike.
Daylen hit the unlock button on her vehicle.
Kanyon smiled and headed to the driver’s side of Daylen’s SUV as Daylen continued her conversation with Theo.
“Nice job, Theo,” Daylen said as she tossed Kanyon the keys. “Yes, I’ll make sure I tell her.” Daylen gave Kanyon a wink.
“Nice job, Theo,” Kanyon yelled.
Daylen smiled. “Yes. Okay.” Short pause. “Yes, I’ll let her know that too.”
When Daylen hung up and slid the phone back into her bag, Kanyon asked, “So what did I just ‘nice job’ him about?”
“Finding this place.” She tapped her notebook. “It has one copy of the book you told him to find: Doris’ Dynasty of Greed, Lust, and Death.”
“Catchy,” Kanyon offered.
“Not as good as having the whole diary, but maybe we can at least get a feel for how this inkwell, pen, and the whole ‘making all your desires come true’ thing works.”
“Head that way?”
“Yep.”
It was a brief drive to the once flourishing neighborhood with local shops and family-owned restaurants. There were still a few stores struggling to hang on, but the area was slowly being choked out by quick marts advertising cigarette and twelve pack sales and instant cash places.
“By the way, what was the other thing Theo wanted you to tell me?” Kanyon asked as they got out of Daylen’s SUV.
